Shazam! A little museum opens in North Park Blocks

"Heroes of the Pacific Northwest" is just one part of the Museum of Cartoon Arts' opening show

Look for this building when visiting the Northwest Museum of Cartoon Arts. Drawing by Jerry James.

A little museum on the North Park Blocks makes a big claim about why Portland is regarded as cartoon capital of the West and home to the highest number of cartoon artists per capita of any place on Earth.

The Northwest Museum of Cartoon Arts’ (NWMOCA) first exhibit focuses on “Heroes of the Pacific Northwest.” In addition to the main exhibit, there are spotlights on other aspects of the local industry, including talented up-and-coming cartoonists.

Comics pull you in, whether dreamy, grotesque or exaggerated. Words and pictures work in tandem to create multiple points of entry to an unlimited range of topics and perspectives. At their best, they engage us in dynamic, immersive ways that words alone sometimes don’t.

Take Portlander Joe Sacco. The war reporter has a dedicated space at the back of the museum’s gallery that features reproductions from his latest work, “War on Gaza,” which won an Eisner award for Best Single Issue/One-Shot. The Eisners are called the Oscars of comics.

One depicts a visit to Sacco’s sister and his 95-year-old mother, who survived the World War II bombing of her native Malta. They’re standing around in a kitchen holding coffee cups while his mother’s deeply held memories appear in dialogue bubbles.

A reproduction from Joe’s Sacco’s latest book “War on Gaza.” A series of his graphic commentaries are on display at the Northwest Cartoon Arts Museum at 322 NW Eighth Avenue in the North Park Blocks. The museum is open 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.

Regarded as the world’s first cartoonist-journalist, Sacco has said he fell back on cartooning when meaningful jobs in journalism didn’t materialize. Earlier works of Sacco’s include “Palestine,” “Footnotes in Gaza” and “Safe Area Gorazde.” In 2012, he won the first Oregon Book Award for Graphic Literature.

Visitors will stumble upon many artists. I liked Jonathan Case, a cartoonist and forager who lives in Silverton. One page pinned to the wall is set in Pacific City and instructs us how to harvest and consume cattails and dandelions. Past work of his includes 2011’s “Dear Creature” and “Green River Killer: A True Detective Story.” His latest is “Little Monarchs.”

Jack Kent’s “Sketchy People” series is a lot of fun and includes more than 2,000 sketches he created while chronicling characters on Portland streets: street musicians, Blazers fans and Portland Streetcar drivers. Each piece is done with a Micron pen and has a location and time stamp. To see more of his work, check out @sketchypeoplepdx and kentcomics.com.

The show was curated by Kate Kelp-Stebbins, director of Comics and Cartoon Studies at the University of Oregon, who said a visitor to the museum can expect to gain an appreciation for the depth and diversity of comics production in our area.

“Portland has long been a hotbed for reimagining what comics can be,” she said. “Artists in the Pacific Northwest tend to challenge the status quo.” The inaugural show, she says, focuses on innovators and new artists breaking their own ground.